Laying vinyl over tiles - how to fill the grout lines?

Deenie78

I'm laying vinyl flooring over my kitchen tiles as a cost saving / stop-measure for a couple of years (that will likely turn into 5) before getting the whole kitchen done. I know the lines will show through so asking for advice on how I might try to fill the lines as best as possible. It's an open plan kitchen with a metal strip separating the floor from the living area flooring which is wooden laminate.

They mentioned self-levelling compound in the shop, but I'm a fairly basic DIYer, ie grand on aesthetic work but less experienced on more complex stuff, so is this easy to work with? From what I looked at I already think the mixing might be an issue as I don't have the right equipment but maybe it's manageable in small quantities?

The kitchen floor is 12 metre squared.

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Rows Grower

It's an easy job when you are used to doing it but you don't sound confident enough to try it. Best thing to do is you supply the levelling compound and have the kitchen cleared of all furniture and the floor cleaned and hoovered for a decent tiler/plasterer/handyman to do the actual trowel work, one man will have it done in less than an hour.

Shoog

Self leveling can be a real pain to get right. It doesn't flow as well as you expect it to. You need to trowel it over the area and you have a very limited time to do it.

I did self leveling in the kitchen and then wood fibre underlay. Went ok.

In the bathroom I simply used grout on the gaps applied with a wide spatula. It will pull away in places so you need to do it twice to be sure. Works fine if a little labour intensive.

Deenie78

Thanks both - really appreciate the feedback. I've used filler in the gaps and it actually seems to have worked okay. Will do a second round on the busy footfall areas to level off any shrinkage. Agree it's a little labour intensive @Shoog :-D